Technical Field
Embodiments of the present invention relate to a light deflector, a two-dimensional image display apparatus, an optical scanner, and an image forming apparatus.
Background Art
Currently, compact light deflectors are under development, whose size is reduced by micromachining technology to which semiconductor manufacturing technology is applied, as devices for deflecting and scanning light beam. Such light deflectors each include a movable part on which a light reflection plane is disposed and a drive bar that oscillates the movable part, and the movable part and the drive bar are integrated into a substrate by adopting micromachining technology with which silicon or glass are micromachined. The drive bar is formed by superimposing a thin-film piezoelectric material on the surface of a cantilever, and the piezoelectric material serves as an actuator. The extension and contraction that are caused by the piezoelectric characteristics of the piezoelectric material towards and away from the surface propagate to a cantilever. Accordingly, the cantilever can be oscillated. Due to the oscillation of the cantilever, the light reflection plane rotates and oscillates. Accordingly, optical deflection is implemented.
When two-dimensional scanning is performed, resonant driving is used for optical scanning in the horizontal direction. As raster scanning is required to achieve finer-resolution display image and uniformity over the plane, non-resonant driving is usually adopted for optical scanning in the vertical direction.